Santa Cruz Dragons

Articles & media

Original writing from the project, plus further reading and news coverage from around the Monterey Bay.

Our articles

Written by Flex Kids Culture

Seven articles drawing on the research behind Chinese Gold and the Santa Cruz Dragons collection.

Agriculture, abalone, fishing, railroads, the Powder Works, the first Chinatown, the laundries, and the displacement of Chinatown.

Pacific Avenue, Front Street, Blackburn's, Birkenseer's and Watsonville — five Chinatowns and what became of them.

Work

The crews who blasted the tunnels and laid the track that ended Santa Cruz's isolation — and were left out of the photographs.

Work

The abalone rush and the fishing villages of the Monterey Bay: squid boats, drying racks, sampans and seaweed.

Work

The farm work that first brought Chinese laborers to the Monterey Bay Peninsula, and the market gardeners who followed.

The Workingmen's Party, the 1882 Exclusion Act, boycotts and evictions — and what persists today.

Tomb sweeping, offerings, kite flying and cold food — and how Qingming was and is observed in Santa Cruz.

In the news

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